~Interlude Regulus Arcturus Black~

Regulus Arcturus Black was a very quiet child. He found it easy to be quiet with a brother like Sirius. Everyone noticed Sirius, everyone loved him-or acted like they loved him-wouldn't do to get on the bad-side of the next Black family Patriarch, after all.

Regulus had no such protection growing up. If someone didn't like him, they told him. If Regulus screwed up there were no awkward chuckles and talks of "sweeping it under the rug," rather stern lectures on how Reg wasn't his brother, would never be his brother and so couldn't afford to act like his brother.

His whole life it seemed as if his parents wanted to pit Regulus and Sirius against each other. But Reg loved his big brother, and so chose the path of least resistance-he stopped standing out. Stopped drawing attention to himself. No-one noticed, at first, after awhile they began to pick up on how withdrawn Regulus had become, it seemed that in trying to hide Reg had cast an even bigger light on himself.

But Sirius picked up on it, and whether due to jealousy or something else, began acting out even more. Regulus never questioned it, too grateful that his brother's attention-seeking habits happened to save him from further scrutiny.

Over time Reg managed to fade into the background. His parents began to ignore him in favor of grooming Sirius to be the next Head of House. His family members labeled him as "withdrawn" or "boring" depending on his age, and any friends he would have made were too dazzled by Sirius's "charming" personality to pay him any mind. In fact the only person that ever seemed to even look at Regulus and see someone other than "the second son" was Kreacher, the family elf.

Sirius didn't count as Reg was almost certain that Sirius saw him as a pest who was a good person to pass the time with, at best. He had no doubt that the first friend that Sirius made in Hogwarts would instantly take his place in his brother's heart. Thus Kreacher was Reg's best friend growing-up, the only person who ever really saw him...until her.

The day Amalthea Dorea Black was born was the day Regulus remembered what it felt like to be noticed by someone, and that feeling persisted for years to come.

No matter where he went Reg could always feel Thea's eyes on him, staring at him as if he would disappear at any moment. Originally he thought that Thea just didn't want to be alone but he later realized that she had latched onto him for some reason. Chosen to putt all of her trust in him.

Reg supposed it made sense, both mother and father preferred a less than hands-on approach to child raring and Sirius cared more about protecting their vulnerable little sister from harm than about showering her with attention. It came as no surprise then that Reg was-arguably- the most attached to Thea out of the family, and so the first to notice when she began acting...weird.

He knew that no-one else in the family noticed, Sirius thought she was just a quite baby and Reg's parents had left her up-keep to Kreacher who wouldn't know a regular baby witch from that of a giant. But Reg had always paid closer attention to Thea, so he picked up when her accidental magic started happening more frequently. Just as he noticed that all the attacks seemed to end with something splattered in color-normally some variant of red; pink, orange, rust, and eventually scarlet.

Reg was also the one who noticed that Thea wasn't very quiet, she would just save all of her noises for the night. When she would take to repeating sounds continually-almost as if practicing.

Yes, Reg knew that Thea wasn't a normal child long before any of them, but none of that mattered because Reg loved Thea-as she was and for whom she was-and that was enough for him.

So when Thea's first words were "Siri" it's understandable that Reg felt a little...betrayed, after all he was the one keeping her secret-whatever it was-not Sirius. But Reg swallowed his pain and carried on, and was rewarded for his loyalty as over the next year Reg got to know Thea on a level that surpassed anyone else.

Sirius was at Hogwarts and his parent's were constantly busy, so Thea got left to his care. That's how he noticed that Thea never seemed to be 'all there' she was perfectly fine mentally, in fact Reg suspected that Thea was something of a genius, but every so often Thea would seem to fade out, day dream almost, only to return later with tears in her eyes.

If Reg hadn't known any better he would say that Thea would act the way Grandfather Pollux would whenever he was recalling the days of Grindawald. 'Flashbacks' mother had called them, but Thea was far too young to be experiencing such things and so Reg did as he always did when confronted with something about his sister that he didn't understand, he kept quiet. After all Reg was not a stupid child, he knew what happened to people who were labeled 'different' by society, not everyone would be as accepting of his sister as him, see how much she loved the world and everyone in it as he did.

And Thea was filled with so much love.

She seemed to look at everything with the knowledge that it could all be taken away and so should be cherished while it was there. Reg knew everyone else was oblivious, his parents thought that she was looking at the world with a 'child-like innocence' and Sirius was hardly ever home anymore, and when he did eventually choose to grace Thea and Reg with his presence he decided to bring a tag-along with, a boy who-while kind in his own right-was not a Black and so had no place in their home.

Not when he had Sirius for 9 months out of the year.

No Reg was the only one who understood how Thea truly felt, home alone, separated from her big brother. It was why Reg made it a point to read all of Sirius's letters out-loud to her. It was why he spent as much time as possible with her, knowing that she would be all alone when he went off to Hogwarts. And it was why, when Thea freaked out about his acceptance letter, Reg knew that she was hurting for him.

Calming her down had been one of the proudest moments of his life. Thea trusted him, believed in him, loved him with everything-in-her-heart, and Reg made a promise to himself that day, that Thea's trust would not be misplaced he would make damn sure that everything would be 'all right.'

Thus when Reg read that letter from his mother about Thea's "less than optimal" condition, he felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. This was his little sister, his baby sister, that needed him and why was he still at Hogwarts?! Regulus was in such a state of shock that he barely registered Sirius returning home with him, or his parents stiff reception, all he could think was 'whatswrongwithThea?' over-and-over again. His mind was going over every abnormal thing he had ever witnessed from his sister wondering if they could somehow be related, be the reason he was here, and if he shouldn't have perhaps told his parents because what if she had been sick and he was the reason that they had only caught it now? And on-and-on his thoughts continued, spiraling out of control, until at last he came too with one sentence;

"I'm a Seer, I can See da fu'ure."

CRASH

Reg startled out of his thoughts and briefly noticed that he had been carrying the same set of Potion Texts since leaving the Express, before zoning in on Thea and her recap of her 'dreams.' Slowly Reg began to relax, with the knowledge that Thea was alright, was normal even. The quirks he had noticed weren't quirks at all, but rather signs of her gift, and Seeing was a gift.

Even if Thea didn't see it that way now.

The rest of the conversation was eclipsed by his feeling of relief at the fact that his sister was okay. When he heard about his death, he managed to ignore it-and Sirius's look of fear-with the knowledge that he died and she didn't. The same when he heard her convoluted dream about animals that seemed to mean something to Sirius but was nothing but gibberish to Reg, the animals died not Thea.

It all came crashing down when Sirius suggested telling people about their sister's gift-no curse, it was back to being a curse. Thea may be safe, but it was a 'for now' situation. As long as Thea held this ability men in power would want to use it. There was a reason why Seers were few and far between, they were either frauds or dead. No middle-ground existed not really, aside from pretending to be a fraud but that's enough to kill some people. To know what's going to happen, warn those closest to you, and then be disregarded because of your 'reputation' would be hell. A hell Regulus would not wish on anyone, let alone Thea.

Regulus tried to explain this to his brother, and he was happy to see that enough had gotten through that Sirius would be willing to keep their sister's secret for her. Reg knew that for all his faults Sirius was as loyal as a dog, if he said he wouldn't say anything then he wouldn't as simple as that. But any relief felt at one disaster adverted was quickly quelled at his sister's revelation that they were standing on the precipice of war.

Reg knew things were changing, had known for awhile in fact. The older Slytherins had been whispering for a while about 'him,' the 'new Dark Lord'. Regulus would even admit to being drawn in to their stories of a 'utopian world' were all pure-bloods could live without fear of muggle-corruption. Regulus was no fool, he knew such a world could never exist-not properly-but the idea of a world where Thea, Sirius, and he could live without the looming threat of another witch-hunt. A world in which Thea's differences and his friendship with a House Elf would be overlooked by virtue of their birth, well such a world was a dream that Reg didn't mind indulging in.

So yes, Reg knew things were changing. But he was much too young and naive to realize that change does not occur without resistance. To realize that what he had been fed for the past three years was but propaganda intended to incite a war. A war that would be fought by the very children Reg attended school with. No, it took his little sister spelling it out for him to see it;

"They're da bad guys."

And even then he wanted to ignore it, to close his eyes on this truth that he hadn't asked for and didn't WANT! And if it had been anyone else telling him these things he might have done just that, Sirius might have done just that, but this was their sister. They couldn't just ignore what she was saying because it made them uncomfortable, not when Thea was forced to live with images of that future running through her head every night.

If Thea couldn't block them out then Reg, and Siri, couldn't either-it wouldn't be right.

Which was why rather than ignoring their impending future Reg started plotting against it. He didn't tell Thea, she had enough on her plate and Reg knew her well enough to know that she would try to stop him. But he told Siri, after all he had to play his part without revealing what they knew which is what would happen if he wasn't told.

So Reg pulled Sirius aside after Thea had fallen asleep and laid out his plan.

"I'm going to act exactly as I have been all year."

"Huh?" Sirius questioned, completely at a loss, "well that's great Reg...but it's not much of a plan, now is it?"

"No, you don't get it Sirius. I'm going to act exactly the same. That means no talking to you or your friends. No hanging out with mudbloods-and yes using that word. No changing, period. If anything," Regulus continued, staring his brother straight in the eye, "I'm going to act worse, and you're going to have to start publicly denouncing me."

Sirius just stared at his brother as if he had lost his mind, "so you're little sister tells you a WAR is on the horizon and you're plan is, to what? Act like a douche?"

"Exactly Sirius, a war, not a battle, a war. The danger of having the backing of a Seer is that you get to see moves weeks, months, years in advance. The game we need to play is a long one, but because of Thea's knowledge we already know the end-game. So why would I show my hand know when I'm in no-position to make a difference?"

"You know I don't understand when you use Chess terms," Sirius muttered looking disgruntled. Regulus just sighed, used to his brothers antics.

"I'm saying that anything I do now would be pointless, and suspicious. After all why would I suddenly change, start ignoring people I had been friends with for years only to hang out with people who have done nothing but torment my House? It would make no sense. Rather, I should continue as I've been, show an interest in all this Death Eater stuff, tell my prefects that I'd like to get 'involved' become a spy."

"You can't," Sirius began, "I'm the reckless one, Reg, and even I know that's far too dangerous!"

"Not if I start now," Reg disagreed, "that's the beauty of having future knowledge, a kid should have no idea that a war's on the horizon. There is no-way that I could possibly be planing against them at age thirteen. Or so they'd think. And if I got in now, and you start making people think we hate each other then it will seem like I have no connection to the light. How can I be a spy if I haven't said a single kind word to anyone 'good' since I was a boy? See, were playing a waiting game Sirius. I'm in the perfect position to get really deep-in; the young scorned, under-appreciated Black son. They'll eat it up!"

Sirius made a noncommittal sound, not completely convinced by Reg's spiel, "but if I can't be seen talking to you, then how would you pass on any information to me?"

"Through Thea," Reg continued, "we can play it off like Thea refuses to chose sides between us, she's so young she'll be what seven? Eight? When the war breaks out. No-one would think anything of her keeping in contact with her two older brothers, and she's already a Seer so its not as if either of us would have to feel guilty about putting her in danger by giving her important information."

"I don't know..."

"Come on Sirius!" Reg pressed, eager to be of assistance. This was something he could do, and do well, Reg had been playing a part all of his life, at least now his acting would mean something, "I can do this, I know I can! And Thea needs me-needs us-to take care of her."

Mentioning Thea seemed to do the trick as something solidified in Sirius's gaze. "Alright," he said, "alright, Reg, you win. You get to play spy."

"Thank you."


Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing!

Raven's Gaze: Yes, I doubt Sirius will go after Remus this time around. The only reason Peter was discounted the first time around was because no-one really expected much of 'little Peter Pettigrew' but the same invisibility will not be available to him this time around. Of course that's assuming things even turn out that way, this time around. As I'm sure this chapter revealed things will most certainly be changing. Haha, I'll make sure to get your James slap one of these days ;)

Stromsten: Sybill Trelawney was seen as a fraud largely because she was a fraud, at least in the eyes of the general public. It's true that her prediction came true, but the only 'real' prediction attributed to her was hushed up by Dumbledore so its not as if any of her students knew about it. On top of that the way the woman acted did not exactly add any credence to her words. Divination is a class at Hogwarts, one that has existed for years, so I have to assume that the Wizarding World as a whole has not dismissed its merits. Especially when one considers that other creatures-such as Centaurs-practice the art, and the sheer number of prophecies kept in the Department of Mysteries. That being said, I don't think Thea can keep up the pretense forever, although it does help that her first life was from 'the future' so that she does know certain facts about the world for many years to come. Trelawney was out of Hogwarts before Sirius entered, but if she was a student I imagine she would have been bullied much like Luna, and that Sirius would now tell people to "lay off her" and that "she's not so bad." Sorry for the long response! . I started writing and couldn't stop.

SNicole25: Thank you! And anything that she believes will help protect her brothers.

Whispers in the Dawm: Thank you so much! I fixed both mistakes as well as editing out other small spelling-goofs . thanks for pointing them out!